We’ll lead with the release: both brown thrashers and the mockingbird went into the flight pen this past week; the mocker continued his manic behavior, as you can see in the video clip below.

Since all three were mostly self-feeding and I do soft releases anyway, I opened the flight pen door to see if anyone was ready to leave. The mocker hauled his little feathered butt out and didn’t look back. The brown thrashers, however, realizing that it’s nice not to have to hunt for your food, opted to hang around in the flight pen for a while longer. They don't wanna give up that guaranteed supply of mealworms!

The remaining three Carolina wrens checked out this week. I don’t normally lose an entire nest of even Caros, and to be honest, this loss was partially my fault. Caros need to be released as soon as possible after they begin self-feeding; with this lot, I had the larger birds in the flight pen and I was reluctant to put the Caros in there, too, because they tend to flit along the ground right at your feet and I’m paranoid that I’ll step on and crush one of them while walking around feeding the larger birds. I’ve come close a couple of times, to the point that I now shuffle my feet rather than pick them up when I have Caros in the flight pen. Anyway, I delayed putting these babies in while I waited to see whether the thrashers and mocker would decide to fly the coop…and that single day’s delay was enough to do those last Caros in. They quite literally went from chipper and active in the morning to dying by early afternoon. I’m not happy, but I can’t blame anybody but myself; I knew better than to delay… However, it being baby season and Carolina wrens being one of LWR’s “frequent fliers”, another nest of 5 came in last week, the day before I lost the last three from the first nest. These babies were already partially feathered when they arrived, so honestly, the chances of all 5 surviving are slightly better. I like to call Caros little feathered rabbits—they’re that fragile and stressy, yep.

The flying squirrel is eating solids quite well now but still also enthusiastically taking her formula. Of course, during the day when I’m taking photos, she’s generally asleep, but that makes for some adorable shots!

And now I just know y’all’re eager to find out about the “oopses”, right? Well, the downy raptor I was so sure was a Mississippi kite last week actually doesn’t seem to be either a kite OR a red shouldered hawk! He’s hypervocal, hates to be handled, is very “footy” and now has to be force-fed, although he wants the food. I’ve even discussed him with other raptor rehabbers and none of us are quite sure what his exact species is, although Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends and I are entertaining the possibility that he might be a broad-winged hawk. Don’t see a lot of broad-wings, adult or otherwise, in rehab, so…we’ll have to wait and see on this guy!

And the final “oops” is an absolute delight. Remember last week’s mystery nestling? The one I tentatively ID’d as a barn swallow? Yeah, well, so did a rehabber who specializes in swifts and swallows, so I don’t feel too bad about this mixup… When she came in, her feathers were still mostly keratin-encased and strangely dark; she was stressed and nonvocal and rather lethargic. BUT…as her feathers broke through, the meds kicked in and she started vocalizing, she turned out to be a gorgeous little female Eastern bluebird! I was thrilled when I thought she was a barn swallow, as they’re adorable little birds and among my favorites to rehab; I was ecstatic when I discovered she was a bluebird, as I’d have to rank bluebirds at the top of my rather lengthy “favorites” list.

In the video above, she couldn’t quite figure out the whole “mealworms are to eat" concept so she just kept vocalizing and turning but wouldn’t get out of the dish!